Dante’s Immortality - Chapter 31

Dante watched Kayla wearily as he and Mia walked toward the signup building. Her brown hair was bouncing merrily as she skipped down the road beside them.

She was now the creature of his nightmares.

What happened?

His first thought when he woke up hungover after the party and noticed Kayla’s behavior, was that he had messed up monumentally and let his Classifications slip. But as time went on, it seemed far less likely.

If Kayla knew his Classifications, the Calmans should have as well, and if that were the case, it didn’t make sense why only Kayla was trying to get closer to him.

He had also considered that Kayla really did hate the Calmans and therefore not told them. He had learned that her story was true by asking Will. But he didn’t see how getting closer to him would be beneficial to her. He was too weak to be useful.

He didn’t put it past Kayla to be planning something though, so he had been waiting cautiously, expecting some form of blackmail to keep his secret.

But when that never happened, he didn’t know what to think.

He even considered the possibility that he and Kayla had done something when he was intoxicated, but he didn’t see how it could result in this situation.

Why did I have to drink?

Dante was mentally bashing his head against a wall, angry at his own stupidity. This entire situation was too much of a mess because he didn’t remember anything. He didn’t even know how to best handle the situation, or even what the situation was.

He didn’t know what could have possessed him to do it, he had been so cautious. Unwilling to try alcohol for the first time in a situation where he needed his guard up. Something must have happened to make him do it, but he didn’t know what.

Kayla turned back to him and winked, causing him to freeze. It was almost as if she knew what he was thinking about. “So, what classes are we going to take?”

It was actually a good question, and he didn’t even know what his options were. “I’m not sure. How many classes can I choose?”

Kayla opened her mouth to answer, but Mia was quick to cut her off. “Theoretically you can choose up to four, but you should only sign up for two at the very most. All classes are four hours long, so you wouldn’t have time to do anything else.”

That was more than disappointing, there were several subjects he was curious about. “Can’t I just take four and skip class when I need to do anything else?” That was something he had learned from Will. After a particularly brutal day of swordsmanship training, Will had the great idea of skipping class.

He was happy he didn’t skip with him, because when Will returned, Archie was more than pleased to dole out punishment.

His question didn’t make her happy. Mia’s jet-black eyes narrowed at him. “You can’t just-”

“What an excellent idea!” Kayla was quick to interrupt Mia, earning a glare. “There is no punishment for a Housing District 1 student to skip class.”

Mia, although slightly put off, wasn’t finished. “That’s improper, besides it would be a massive waste of your credits.”

Dante pulled out his identification card. “How much could they cost?”

Name: Dante

Classification(s): Warrior

Living Quarters: Housing District 1 – Building 43 – Floor 3

Arena Rank: Gold (232/825 Credit Earned)

Arena Team: None

Arena Team Rank: N/A

Credit: 232

It had taken him 25 credits to move from bronze to silver, at 2 credits per win. Then to get to gold rank, he needed to reach 225 credits total, at 4 credits per win. And from the gold match he had won earlier, he had earned 6 credits.

Getting to his current total had taken quite a while, and a lot of saving, so he was quite proud of his 232 credits.

Mia thought about it for a moment. “It depends on the class, some of them are more expensive due to instructor limitations, and others can be more expensive if they require the use of valuable resources… I think that almost all of them are between 25 and 1,000 credits.”

Dante’s heart skipped a beat. “1,000?”

That wasn’t good news, he had been counting on abusing all that the academy had to offer as quickly as possible so that he could leave. It seemed like everywhere he looked, someone was trying to use him for something, and Kayla’s new attitude was only making the feeling much worse. The main reason he hadn’t just run off in the middle of the night was because he still hadn’t learned mana manipulation, it was something that he would need before leaving the academy.

Kayla saw Dante’s reaction and smiled mischievously. “Actually, the most expensive class is 10,000 credits.”

Dante looked back down to his identification card, and the 232 credits he had been so proud of only moment ago.

Mia just rolled her eyes at Kayla, visibly annoyed. “Only one class is that expensive. And that’s only because House Calman supplies the creatures for taming from their own bestiaries.”

His head perked up. “How does taming work?”

Kayla covered her giggle with her hand. “It’s so cute when you act like a simpleton.”

Dante glared at her. He was pretty sure that if she weren't acting so nice to him, the insult wouldn’t have been blunted by calling him ‘cute.'

Seeing his glare, Kayla stopped laughing immediately. “Taming isn’t a big deal, it’s just binding yourself to a creature through a mana contract.”

Not a big deal?

It sounded like a pretty big deal to him.

Mia saw his excitement and tried to let him down easy. “Don’t get too ahead of yourself. If you don’t have a Tamer Classification or one that is similar, you can only bind yourself to one creature. Not only that, but if the creature has higher Intelligence than the person it’s bonded to it will turn on them… or if it’s intelligent enough, use the bond to control the person that forced them into the contract.”

Mia’s bad news didn’t really faze him, he hadn’t even known that taming was possible a few minutes ago, so the limitation of only one bonded creature at a time didn’t mean much to him. All he needed to do was make sure his Intelligence was higher than the beast he bonded, and he would be fine.

Seeing Dante’s lack of negative reaction, Mia continued, as if breaking the terrible news to him. “It’s not as simple as you think. Any powerful creature worth bonding with would have far higher Intelligence than the average human. Since you don’t have a magic Classification, and therefore don’t gain Intelligence attributes from leveling your Classification, you won’t be able to bond with almost any creatures.”

Before he could even react to her words, Mia continued on hurriedly. “But don’t worry, there are still some useful regular creatures that you could bond with. A horse, for example, or possibly a bird for scouting.”

Dante glanced to Kayla checking her reaction, but there was no change in her expression. He was still unsure whether or not she knew about his Classifications.

Kayla caught him glancing and smiled encouragingly. “Don’t worry, the academy sells basic bonding contracts for stupid animals. You can probably get one for as cheap as 50 credits.” She walked up and latched onto his arm as if to comfort him, but if anything, he was only more uncomfortable.

Her words caught his interest. “Basic bonding contract?”

Kayla nodded. “A basic bonding contract allows for someone to bond a creature with 10 Intelligence or less. They are useful for non-magic Classifications because that’s around their limitation.”

“Does that mean there are stronger contracts, how would someone get one?” He was afraid that his question might be a bit too revealing, but the two of them knew of his curiosity. After all, he had just taken a fireball in the arena for the opportunity to learn more about mana manipulation.

Kayla glanced upward for a moment, thinking his question over. “Contracts are made by Tamers, and the contracts strength is dependent on the resources used, as well as how many times the Tamer has specialized. They usually only make contracts for others if they are supplied with the resources required and a fee, but since the academy’s Tamer is an instructor, she is supplied with the resources to make low-level contracts for student’s use.”

Dante opened his mouth to ask what resources were required for contracts when he was cut off by a mouthful of hair.

Mia abruptly grabbed his arm and spun on her heels while utilizing her surprising Strength. It simultaneously broke Kayla’s grip on his arm, which he was thankful for, as well as flung her hair black hair into his open mouth as she spun, which he could have done without. “We are here.”

Not pausing for a moment Mia pulled him into the class selection building.